London, England– We saw the lurid green "pre-production" version of the Ford Focus RS at the 2008 British Motor Show in July, and now the official production version is ready.

We're not sure that the blue colour does the design justice, but it is a traditional RS colour.

With this more conservative paint job and a price tag similar to that of the Audi S3 at around £25,000 (A$57,000), the Ford Focus RS is powered by the same 2.5-litre 5-cylinder turbo petrol engine.

This engine is seen in the XR5 Focus Turbo sold in Australia, albeit with a much higher state of tune on the RS.

The
new model is front-wheel drive which many pundits claim will ruin the
performance feel by adding torque steer, but Ford has a few tricks
up its sleeve to mitigate such issues, such as the "RevoKnuckle" which you can read about in the Chassis section.

As we revealed in July, the
rally-bred Focus RS is set for an early 2009 release in Europe and only
5000 units will be made, which will ensure the RS badge retains its
exclusivity.

Already 1500 have been sold.

We asked Ford Australia what it thought of the Focus RS, and the company's brand manager said: "It looks
sensational and while it would be great to have something [like this],
we won't be importing this model to Australia."

Engine

The engine is a modified version of 2.5-litre turbo unit from the Ford Focus XR5 Turbo, which scored four out of five Wombats in a 2008 road test.

As
predicted, the RS will sprint from zero to 100km/h in 5.9 seconds
and will have a top speed of 250km/h (155mph), making it one of Ford's
quickest cars yet.

Design

Showing
off a bold body kit, sitting on big wheel rims and low profile tyres and
with a wider stance than its donor car, the Ford Focus RS makes a powerful
visual statement.

"We
believe it's vitally important that a Focus RS looks like both a
Focus and an RS – it needs to be individual, distinctive and
overt in its performance styling, but it also needs to show a clear
progression from and relationship to Focus ST," said Stefan Lamm,
the Chief Exterior Designer at Ford of Europe.

Along with its flared wheel arches and 19-inch alloy wheels, the Focus RS receives the following body work changes:

The
interior of the Ford Focus RS has also been upgraded to coincide with
the vehicle's motor sports attitude, "dominated by bespoke, sculpted
Recaro
high-performance sports seats" according to Ford. The seats are
also colour-matched to the exterior and feature ebony leather
accents, plus 'RS' and 'Recaro' logos.

Brushed aluminium
and carbon-look trim give the interior a sporty look and feel, and the 6-speed manual gear
lever finished gets RS graphics as does the steering wheel.

There's three new gauges
to inform drivers of turbo and oil pressure.

Ford of Europe's big chief, John Fleming, said "RS
is uniquely important to us in terms of our performance heritage and
World Rally Championship success, while the Focus has played a major
part in establishing Ford’s excellent reputation for driving
dynamics.

"The all-new Focus RS will embrace and celebrate both of these –
it will be a genuine RS and a genuine Focus and I'm confident it
won't disappoint in either area," concluded Fleming.

Chassis

It
rides on large 19-inch alloy wheels shod with low profile 235/35 R19
Continental tyres, has a 40mm wider track complete with flared wheel
arches, and a stronger driveshaft to weather increased punishment from the boosted engine.

There's also
new suspension that includes revised springs and dampers plus
a thicker and longer rear anti-roll bar.

The steering
has been tweaked to give it a motor sports feel and the
anchors have been upsized with 336mm front and 300mm rear discs to generate "vice-like
stopping power on road or track" according to Ford.

Changes
to the ESP software make it less intrusive, which Ford
says facilitates a very sporty driving style before
activating.

"We are
refining all the handling characteristics of Focus RS without ESP, to
hone its natural responses, rather than use ESP to help its handling.

Another chassis upgrade included on the Ford Focus RS is the 'RevoKnuckle' front suspension system.

It's
designed to reduce torque steer and what Ford calls unwanted steering
disturbances through the front wheels and works in tandem with
a Quaife Automatic
Torque Biasing limited-slip
differential.

"The Ford Focus is an excellent base for a high
performance car – agile, responsive and stable," explained Jost Capito. "We
studied at length how best to enhance these qualities for a high
performance model.

"Our work has shown clearly that our approach in
combining a tuned RevoKnuckle with the Quaife differential is an ideal
solution for a high performance front-wheel-drive road car like Focus
RS."

"As you would expect," continued Capito, "we gave all-wheel-drive careful
consideration, but by combining and tuning these elements and learning
from Ford's expertise in industry-leading handling, we have managed to
eliminate the weight of AWD from the car and still have been able to
target a class-leading balance of traction, handling and performance."